Abstract
We provide the first experimental confirmation of a three-way quantum coherence identity possessed by single pure-state photons. Our experimental results demonstrate that traditional wave-particle duality is specifically limited by this identity. As a new consequence, we show that quantum duality itself can be amplified, attenuated, or turned completely off. In the Young double-slit context this quantum coherence identity is found to be directly relevant, and it supplies a rare quantitative backup for one of Bohr's philosophical pronouncements.
Highlights
We provide the first experimental confirmation of a three-way quantum coherence identity possessed by single pure-state photons
Does the three-part classical identity (2) derived in QVE apply to individual quantum particles? In the following paragraphs we present the results of fully quantum single-particle self-interference experiments that give a positive answer to the question and represent the first completely tested quantification of quantum duality
We observed with single-photon detection the QVE three-way identity V 2 + D2 + C2 = 1, for the quantum coherence possessed by single photons
Summary
Feynman famously celebrated quantum duality “...[as] a phenomenon which is impossible, absolutely impossible, to explain in any classical way, and which has in it the heart of quantum mechanics In reality it contains the only mystery.” [2]. For any experiment analogous to Young-type two-beam interference [3] (suggested in Fig. 1), the work of Wootters and Zurek in 1979 [4] introduced the standard route for analysis and eliminated the tendency to consider duality as an exclusive either-or wave-particle restriction. They showed that it is better seen as a combination in which both features can be simultaneously active: V for visibility of interference fringes measuring waveness and D for separate light path distinctiveness measuring particle probability.
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